Michael Sandel discusses "The Case Against Perfection: What's Wrong with Designer Children, Bionic Athletes, and Genetic Engineering" as a part of The Ethical Frontiers of Science during the 2008 Chautauqua Institution morning lecture series.

Michael Sandel

Michael J. Sandel is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University, where he has taught political philosophy since 1980. His latest book is What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets. Sandel’s other books include Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? and Liberalism and the Limits of Justice, among others. His work has been translated into 19 foreign languages. In 2010, China Newsweek named him the most influential foreign figure of the year in China. In 2009, Sandel delivered the prestigious BBC Reith Lectures, broadcast in the United Kingdom and worldwide on the BBC World Service. In the United States, Sandel has served on the President’s Council on Bioethics and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; he is also on the Council on Foreign Relations.

Harvard professor Michael Sandel objects to the prospect of genetically engineered children because it will treat children not so much as gifts of life but "objects of our design and instruments of ambition."

This hubris will damage parent/child relationship to one that is not based on unconditional love.